Pre-Thanksgiving Update...

Range time...

I managed to hit the range the evening before my Wife left town. This would be the first weekend in quite some time with no golfing so I opted for the bottomless bucket. My main goal was to focus on the 3, 4, and 5 irons. I don't recall making any real progress on those irons, but I do recall imagining a round at The Battleground.

I've played The Battleground three and a half times and I can now picture most of the course in my mind. About halfway through my third bucket (after my intercostals and right ring finger callous started shouting "Hey Pal, call it a day all ready!!", I decided to imagine a round at The Battleground. I would imagine the fairway, hit a drive, make an approach shot, and perhaps a chip. It was quite an enjoyable exercise. The lesson on the day was smooth and easy for a straight shot. Of course I know that - I just have trouble applying it on the course.

After I finished my "round", I hit a few with the fairway woods (the original Adams Tight Lies) which I had never been able to hit. Much to my surprise I was hitting them pretty long and straight using the same swing that I use with the driver. Certainly I was not hitting every shot long and straight, but I was quite happy with what I was seeing.

Anxious to play...

During my four days with the kids, while checking my email, the weather, and slickdeals, I would browse over to PGA18.com (and Golf18Houston.com) to see what kind of deals I could find for the coming holiday. I've come to find out that the biggest shopping day of the year is also the biggest golfing day of the year. I'm hoping to get a round in that day, but I usually can't book a tee time as a single through PGA18.com.

At some point my mind began teasing me about a round Monday morning. Yeah, I could hit Pasadena at the crack of dawn, or maybe even Eagle Pointe (where I could book a tee time as a single). By Sunday night I was commited.

I arrived at Pasadena Municipal just as the sun was inching up over the horizon. I was surprised to see quite a bit of activity on this cold (for Houston - 45* F) morning. I hustled up to the Club House and paid my $9.00 to walk the course and this is what I saw when I got to the first tee:



It turns out that Monday is Seniors Day at Pasadena - Lesson Learned!!!

I made a quick decision to start at the 10th. I don't want to go into too much detail here, but in the end I had an average day shooting 113, making 2 pars, 2 bogeys, 5 doubles, 7 triples, 4 penalties (1 water, 3 OOB), and crapping out 49 putts. I finished the round in about 3hrs 20mins. It was my 15th time playing a regulation course. Five more rounds and I can have a real handicap!

Lesson No. 1: Playing golf at the crack of dawn starting on the 10th hole makes putting very difficult. What I learned was that early ing the morning there is quite a bit of dew on the greens. This makes them super slow. In addition, starting on the 10th means that most of them haven't been cut. I learned later in the day that the greenskeeper cuts the greens in the morning. This morning cut breaks the dew as well as cuts the grass. Also, as the sun rose, some greens would dry off a bit. So what I had was greens that were very inconsistant from hole to hole. I suppose the next time I play early in the morning I'll be a little more prepared, but I was not too happy with the putting.